Project: Apple Trees

I've tried to do a few activities a week with the girls during the time that we have between lunch and naps. Sometimes I assist them with a project and sometimes they do one on their own such as play doh or coloring one of those huge coloring pages.
This one we did the other day. It was easy, with not much prep to do before hand. I found booklets of 600 stickers for $1 at JoAnn's, so I drew a tree with a brown marker and the girls colored it with crayons, then I had pre-cut green "leaves" out of green construction paper and scrap paper that they glued on (using their fingers in the glue), then we added some green glitter (also $1 at JoAnn's). After that they put apple, birds, and squirrel stickers on to make their apple trees!

Nauna and Zeyda's Visit

For the better part of 2 weeks, at the end of July and into August, Matt's parents came to the northwest for a conference and then to stay with us. We had a great time and we got to do some relaxing as well as sightseeing.

On the top of the Space Needle.

At the zoo.

At the mall...something I would never pay for :)

Museum of Flight. We also saw the Blue Angels here, and the pilots driving in cars!

Budding Gymnast

This summer Emma took swimming lessons again, and we tried something new: gymnastics class. She loved it! And she was really good at it! Emma also loves going to swimming lessons, but she's not a big fan of going underwater, and so she'll be repeating the Minnows 1 class. I think she just likes to be social :) Anyway, she really excelled at gymnastics and her coach, Coach Franny, suggested that she move to the older class for the last couple of classes since she did so well in her first experience. Its so cute to see her in her leotard hopping and swinging around. Next: preschool! Eeek!

Little Artist

A few times recently Emma has been taking pictures on my iPhone. She's actually not bad, and really enjoys it. She can occupy herself with the camera for a LONG time :) It's like she's really capturing all the little things that a 4 year old notices during the day. Here are a few of her pictures:

New Addition!

Meet Ty!

Ten days ago Ty Joseph Rosenberg was born! He was due on June 28, however he chose to come on Independence Day. I was a little stressed out that he was so late, just because my mom had come to help out, and had limited time. Otherwise I think I would have been OK being overdue. I didn't feel terrible, physically, just stressed.
The pregnancy was very typical with achy hips, etc., and the only "complication" was that Ty was still transverse at 38 weeks and the professionals were concerned, so I had a version done (where they manually turn the baby into head-down position) and in 2 hours he had turned back, so 2 days later I had another version, after which I had to wear a binder - a 9 inch piece of elastic - 24/7.
After I had gone 2 days past my due date my midwife did a membrane sweep (separating the membrane from the cervix) but nothing happened, so I had another one done 2 days later, on Friday morning, July 2, and I started having relatively painful contractions shortly after that, but they were 20-45 minutes apart. This continued all night into Saturday afternoon, and being desperate I took some castor oil at 3 p.m. This, I'm pretty sure, did nothing, but clean me out (as it is a laxative) 6 hours later, just like the packaging said it would. I took another spoonful at 7...eek. But then my water broke, which was really weird, at about 11:30 p.m., just when I had resolved to not worry anymore and just enjoy July 4th with my family.
We went to the hospital, got hooked up, and they started me on the IV so I could get my epidural quickly. Soon after the epidural was in the baby's heart rate started to drop with every contraction. They rolled me and my numb legs every which way, and turned out that the least stressful position for Ty was me on my hands and knees. I stayed this way and actually slept like this for about an hour, until I had 6 contractions in a row that the baby had trouble recovering from, so I was flipped around again and surrounded by many medical people. I was told that because Ty was in distress he would maybe have to be delivered with the aid of a vacuum, but it took only 3 or 4 pushes to get him out by 5:40 a.m.
So, all my kids have been born on Sundays after many hours of contractions, but Ty broke the mold by being late. He is sooo cute, and he's fit right into our family!

Please Pray

I'm passing along a huge prayer request. Our bestest friends, Eric and Erin are in the process of adopting a baby boy, Julien. He was born on Monday, and doing Ok until yesterday when he was moved to the NICU first and then to the Children's Hospital. There is an acid build up in his body and something metabolically is not breaking down (doctors mentioned fats or proteins). So far the acid has not caused damage to his liver, kidneys or brain. We are appealing to everyone to pray (with the blessing of Eric and Erin) for a full, speedy recovery for Julien.

Taking Matters Into My Own Hands

I'm so excited to put this up, cause I'm proud that aside from some loose tension on my sewing machine, this project has really worked out!!!
I have always been dissatisfied with diaper bags. When Emma was born we got a large chunk of money from someone, so I treated myself to an expensive bag from BabyStyle, that was one of the only ones I found that just looked liked a regular bag. It had no bottle pockets on the outside (which scream, "I'm a diaper bag!"), and it just looked like a regular messenger bag in a camo green. Inside, however, it only had 1 zipper pocket, and there were 2 pockets on the outside that held my wallet and phone. Being super organized (the Container Store makes my heart skip a beat) I have always wanted lots of pockets inside my diaper bag, but it seems that its almost impossible to find a regular looking bag with lots of pockets...that is also affordable!
When Siri was born I bought a cute bag from PacSun (I'm addicted to their bags) and used velcro to add some reinforced dividers that I made. I put in a little "room" on the bottom for those just-in-case items (extra sleeper, onsie, blanket, & diaper), and this worked really well, but it only closed with a magnetic snap, so things could get wet, and wouldn't work for 3 kids.
I had been looking on etsy.com through lots and lots of bags and came across some patterns, finally finding the perfect one from a Jen Giddens (http://www.etsy.com/shop/jengiddens). I added a top flap, made the strap adjustable, and added lots of custom pockets inside: one for diapers, one for wipes, a little nuk pocket, a short bottle pocket (cause I use the short, fat bottles), 2 pockets for my girls' Nalgene sippy cups; and the "mom pockets" are the cream ones: one for my wallet, iPhone, keys, and pens. It is also super roomy for all the times that extra things need to be in there, like service activities, snacks, etc. for Emma and Siri. I think I'm going to add a drawstring bag for the just-in-case items to put on the bottom.
This being done, I'm pretty excited for this baby to come so I can use my new diaper bag!